Whilst access to CAR-T therapy is only available by entry into clinical trials in the UK currently, recent results of ciltacabtagene autoleucel (also known as cilta-cel and Carvykit) has been shown to be “remarkably effective” in the treatment of myeloma.
The results presented at the ASCO meeting and published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that in a trial of 419 patients whose myeloma had stopped responding toe lenalidomide maintenance a single infusion of the CAR-T product resulted in a 74% lower risk of relapse.
In the cilta-cel group 84.6% of patients responded to treatment compared with 67.3% in the standard care group. Approximately 60% of patients who received cilta-cel appeared to have no myeloma detectable after treatment. These results are likely to increase calls for cilta-cel to become available in the UK.